ORYs

Originally Radical Youngsters (ORYs)

According to popular wisdom it was Winston Churchill who once said ‘If you’re not a socialist at twenty then you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative when you’re forty then you have no head.’ He almost certainly didn’t say it; the accuracy of those who ascribe it to him being on a par with that of the opinion polls leading up to last week’s election.

Since the election we have been told that there is a group of people known as ‘shy Tories’ – people who voted Conservative but are reluctant to admit to it. The idea that we were all idealistic when we were young and that notions of equality and fairness are gradually replaced with self-interest and a jealous guarding of our possessions as we grow older is a well-recognised phenomenon. As we become more acquisitive as a society, this switch from youthful radicalism to middle-aged conservatism seems to be taking place at an ever earlier age. Herein, perhaps, lies the reason for the Conservative victory in last week’s election.

Perhaps many who vote Conservative are aware that they have somehow abandoned the aspirations of their youth. They therefore do not admit to opinion pollsters their switch from idealism to selfishness. These Originally Radical Youngsters (ORYs) have decided that the poor deserve to poor and that they, having fortunately escaped that fate, equally deserve not to be. Such people are more than just shy Tories; they have betrayed their ideals and have become nasty, selfish and greedy. They were Originally Radical Youngsters, but now they have become SHITE ORYs.